Greetings All

I have used root many time however I can't seem to get into root in debian I do not know what i am doing wrong can u help

also how do I install files like tar I did it in the other distros but I cant here is it diferent?

Thank you all

Can you log in as a regular user? If so, type:
su -
And then the root password.

Other options are, switching consoles:
CTRL+ALT+F2
And then typing
root
In the username spot, followed by an ENTER, then the root password.

Do you mean you actually want to install the application 'tar' or do you mean how to install an application that ends in .tar.gz or something similar?

Cool

I can unpack them using a gui I have not tried it the other way.

what I am trying to do is install opera (a web browser) now usually i just either install it with the rpm type or after unpacking a tar file i do ./configure and so on but here it acts as though it does not have ./configure

and as far as the log on what I need to do is open fstab and I cant save the changes to it when under the reg user. what do I type if in the terminal to open it so I can edit it.

I have done this when in the terminal su enter then the password but i do not know how t access programs like text editors that way.

ps: all of the other distros i had I just loged out and loged in as root now here it says I cant do that.

It might be that kdm or gdm or whatever (which are you using anyway?) is configured to not allow root logins. Using kde or gnome as root is considered insecure.

If you want to install something in debian, you should be using the apt system, not rpms or tars. try googling for apt-get, apt-cache and/or aptitude.

Groetjes,

Kees-Jan

well thank you all for your help I installed the stuff I needed using dpkg -i filename. now as far as getng a text editor runing in root how do i do that what name do i type.

Again thankyou for your help

No need to logout and login in-order to run applications as root.
If a program is in your path, you can invoke it from the console as root. for example:
1) su
2) password
3) nano /home/user/textfile

nano is a quick console text editor but you may call any other app you wish (e.g. gedit [Gnome] or kwrite [KDE]).

I think in most cases there is no need to use dpkg directly.
Learn how to use apt-get (apt is one of the reasons why many people chooze Debian), google for apt howto. Then check out Synaptic which is a nice graphical implementation of apt.

Good luck.

the simplest way: after login in X window as normal user go to GNOME menu bar
select "system tools"
then something like "login screen setup". The system will prompt you for the root password. After that in the following panel select the item "security" there you can select the option show root login in graphical mode. At next login in X window you can use root as login!


other way:

login as root in text mode then startx -- :1 vt8
then ctrl + alt F8 and the X window will appear as root!